IMPROVING THE VIII F GRADE STUDENTS’ PARTICIPATION AND

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to improve the VIII F grade students’ participation and their reading comprehension achievement by using Student Teams– Achievement Divisions technique. STAD was chosen because it was appropriatetechnique to improve the students’ active participation and achievement. Based on the purpose, the researcher regarded Classroom Action Research as the appropriate design for this research. This research was conducted at SMP Negeri 3 Tanggul and the subjects of this research were the VIII F grade students. The data were obtained from reading comprehension achievement test, class observation, interview and documentation. The result of the observation was analyzed statistically by using percentage. The collected data in the form of the students’ reading comprehension scores were analyzed statistically to find the mean score. In details, the number of students who were active in the teaching and learning process of reading comprehension increased from 72.97%in the first cycle to 86.48%in the second cycle and the students’ reading comprehension achievementtest increased from 62.16% (the mean score was 73.40) to 78.37% (the mean score was 83.35). Based on the results of data analysis and pedagogical implication, it can be concluded that the use of STAD technique could improve the VIII F grade students’ active participation in the teaching learning process of reading at SMP Negeri 3 Tanggul. STAD technique also could improve the VIII F students’ achievement in reading comprehension at SMP Negeri 3 Tanggul. Therefore, the English teacher is suggested to apply STAD technique in teaching reading comprehension because it can be used to improve the students’ reading comprehension achievement as well as their active participation.